Logical reasoning PrepTest 102 · Section 3 · Question 16

Question prompt

Motorcoach driver: Professional drivers Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/Valid

Question Type

Point at Issue Questions

Stimulus Summary

MD: Professional drivers have more experience and are thus better drivers, so lowering the speed limit would force them to break the law. PO: They can...just slow down. So reducing the speed limit wouldn’t force them to speed.

Answer Anticipation

When dealing with a Point at Issue question, we should always start by looking at any statements the second speaker explicitly disagrees with. Here, the Officer states that “it is not true” to say that lowering the speed limit forces professional drivers to break the law by speeding. Is that claim made by the Driver? It is - she ends the argument by stating that lowering the speed limit would force certain drivers to “break the law.” That is therefore a point at issue between them. Is there anything else they disagree over? The only other thing the Office says is that all drivers can drive the speed limit if they wish. The Driver states that lowering the speed limit would “forc[e]” some people to break the law. So the Driver must believe that it’s not possible for everyone to drive that speed limit. As such, this is another point at issue, albeit strongly related to the first one. As such, let’s head to the answers and find one of the two.

Answer choices

  1. A
    it would be desirable Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The Officer doesn’t weigh in on whether a lowering of the speed limit would be desirable, so this answer is out of scope. (The Driver implies that she believes it shouldn’t be, so she’d disagree with this answer.)
  2. B
    professional drivers will drive Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The Driver believes that this won’t happen as people will be “forc[ed]” to break the speed limit law. The Officer, however, speaks only to what people “can” do, not what they will do, so we don’t know his opinion on this answer.
  3. C
    reducing the speed limit Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem
    The Driver believes that lowering the speed limit would have the effect of forcing some people to break that law, so she agrees with this answer. The Officer believes it’s not true to say this, so he disagrees. This is the correct answer.
  4. D
    professional drivers are more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    The Driver states this, but the Officer doesn’t weigh in on it, so this answer is out of scope of his argument.
  5. E
    all drivers wish to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Neither speaker talks about what drivers wish to do. The Officer talks about what people will do if they wish it, but that’s not the same as saying what their wish is. And the Driver doesn’t talk about the desires of professional drivers to drive the speed limit, let alone all drivers.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 14%
  2. B 7%
  3. C Credited 73%
  4. D 1%
  5. E 4%

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